Response Properties of a Sensory Hair Excised from Venus's Flytrap

Benolken, R. M.; Jacobson, Stuart L.

doi:10.1085/jgp.56.1.64

Cited by 69 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…In the Venus flytrap, the first stage is due to the receptor potential, 31 a transient depolarization with a critical threshold that triggers action potentials, which in turn is responsible for stages (ii) and (iii). Receptor potentials are generated by mechanosensitive ion channels.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Closing of Venus Flytrap by Electrical Stimulation of Motor Cells

Volkov

Adesina

Jovanov

2007

Plant Signaling & Behavior

117

109

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Closing of Venus Flytrap by Electrical Stimulation of Motor Cells

Volkov

Adesina

Jovanov

2007

Plant Signaling & Behavior

117

109

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“…There are three hairs per lobe for Dionaea and about 20 of them for Aldrovanda. At the base of each sensitive hair, a layer of 20-30 cells act as mechanoreceptors and produces a graded receptor potential upon stimulation (Benolken and Jacobson 1970). If this receptor potential becomes larger than a certain threshold, it gives rise to an action potential that, once evoked, spreads without attenuation from cell to cell throughout the entire trap (Iijima and Sibaoka 1982;Hodick and Sievers 1988).…”

Section: Detection and Electrical Signallingmentioning

confidence: 99%

At the conjunction of biology, chemistry and physics: the fast movements ofDionaea, Aldrovanda, UtriculariaandStylidium

Joyeux¹

2011

Frontiers in Life Science

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Plants and fungi are able to move to perform essential functions. When these functions rely on insects, e.g. the nutrition uptake of carnivorous plants such as Dionaea, Aldrovanda, and Utricularia or the cross-pollination mechanism of Stylidium, then these movements must be both very rapid (faster than the second time scale) and repetitive. This paper discusses the different strategies these plants have developed to achieve this goal, and is aimed at pointing out how intricate the involved biological, chemical and physical mechanisms are. Before presenting some recent advances in the modelling of these plants, the paper first describes the functioning of motor cells, which is based on the equilibration of osmotic pressures, as well as the electric signalling through the propagation of action potentials, by which the stimulation due to the insect is transmitted to these motor cells. The paper then discusses the mechanisms these plants use to perform movements well below the second time scale, which are essentially based on the physical phenomenon known as snap-buckling in material sciences. The Conclusions mention several points that are not well understood and would clearly deserve further attention.

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“…The omnipresence of these channels indicates their important physiological function in the regulation of osmolarity, cell volume, and growth (Markin and Sachs, 2004). They are ideal transducers of physiologically relevant mechanical forces (Benolken and Jacobson, 1970). Mechanosensory ion channels in plants are activated by mechanical stress and transduce the sensed information into electrical signals (Volkov and Haack, 1995).…”

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confidence: 99%

Kinetics and Mechanism of Dionaea muscipula Trap Closing

et al. 2007

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The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) possesses an active trapping mechanism to capture insects with one of the most rapid movements in the plant kingdom, as described by Darwin. This article presents a detailed experimental investigation of trap closure by mechanical and electrical stimuli and the mechanism of this process. Trap closure consists of three distinctive phases: a silent phase with no observable movement; an accelerated movement of the lobes; and the relaxation of the lobes in their closed state, resulting in a new equilibrium. Uncouplers and blockers of membrane channels were used to investigate the mechanisms of different phases of closing. Uncouplers increased trap closure delay and significantly decreased the speed of trap closure. Ion channel blockers and aquaporin inhibitors increased time of closing. Transmission of a single electrical charge between a lobe and the midrib causes closure of the trap and induces an electrical signal propagating between both lobes and midrib. The Venus flytrap can accumulate small subthreshold charges, and when the threshold value is reached, the trap closes. Repeated application of smaller charges demonstrates the summation of stimuli. The cumulative character of electrical stimuli points to the existence of electrical memory in the Venus flytrap. The observed fast movement can be explained by the hydroelastic curvature model without invoking buckling instability. The new hydroelastic curvature mechanism provides an accurate description of the authors' experimental data.Plants can react to mechanical stimuli (Ksenzhek and Volkov, 1998;Braam, 2005) with the use of mechanosensitive channels. These channels are found in different types of cells-animal, plant, fungal, and bacterial. The omnipresence of these channels indicates their important physiological function in the regulation of osmolarity, cell volume, and growth (Markin and Sachs, 2004). They are ideal transducers of physiologically relevant mechanical forces (Benolken and Jacobson, 1970). Mechanosensory ion channels in plants are activated by mechanical stress and transduce the sensed information into electrical signals (Volkov and Haack, 1995). In higher plants, these channels are involved in the response to environmental stress (Volkov et al

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Response Properties of a Sensory Hair Excised from Venus's Flytrap

Cited by 69 publications

References 2 publications

Closing of Venus Flytrap by Electrical Stimulation of Motor Cells

Closing of Venus Flytrap by Electrical Stimulation of Motor Cells

At the conjunction of biology, chemistry and physics: the fast movements ofDionaea, Aldrovanda, UtriculariaandStylidium

Kinetics and Mechanism of Dionaea muscipula Trap Closing

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